You Can't Fire the Customer

Customer Service has become a major element in the strategic plans of all successful companies today. Companies expect employees to give excellent (not just good) service to all customers, as well as to successfully handle difficult customers who can be hard-to-please, uncertain, angry, insulting, or even threatening. It is often the failure to deal successfully with these difficult customers that leads to reprimands and termination for employees.

You Can't Fire the Customer gives students the knowledge and confidence that they need in order to handle the average customer and the difficult customer. The game focuses on ten important skills and how to use them in realistic situations.

Policy Skills (what to do) Personal Skills (how to do it)

1. Fulfill company promises 1. Focus on the customer
2. Stay within your authority 2. Always show respect
3. Get help when needed 3. Keep your word
4. Fix problems 4. Be a good listener
5. Address customer needs 5. Show empathy

In the game, players earn play money by giving good advice to Linda, a new employee at Office Giant, an office supplies superstore. In the course of the game, Linda deals with customers on the phone, at the Service Desk, and on the sales floor. She encounters some cooperative customers and a range of difficult customers. Players enhance their advice with appropriate tone of voice and body language.

SCANS Skills Addressed:

Foundation Skills: Thinking Skills, Personal Qualities, Basic Skills Workplace Competencies: Interpersonal Skills, Information, Systems

Learning Objectives:

Learn essential customer service skills.
Learn the special relationship between the customer and the employee.
Learn when to handle a tough situation and when to seek help from a supervisor.
Understand the concept of authority and the importance of not exceeding it.
Learn the importance of knowing company policy and applying it to problems.
Learn the importance of appropriate tone of voice and body language.
Learn critical thinking skills by evaluating alternative ways of responding to customers.